Assessment of level of knowledge of basic life support algorithm among medical and nursing students in a tertiary care teaching hospital

2016-11-24T04-45-51Z
Source: International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health
Bindhu Vausedvan, Anupa Lucas, Geetha Devi M., Anitha Bhaskar, Binu Areekal.
Background: Every person should know about basic life support resuscitation (BLS) skill, but its knowledge is vital for medical and paramedical personnel. Structured training & retraining is required for its efficient execution which is lacking in the current medical curriculum. Basic situation analysis regarding the students knowledge regarding BLS is necessary to develop a effective training programme. Objective of the study was to assess the knowledge of BLS resuscitation algorithm among medical and nursing students of Medical College Kottayam, Kerala and to find whether there is any difference in the knowledge level of medical& nursing students about BLS. Methods: A cross-sectional Analytic study was conducted among the medical and nursing students of Govt. Medical College, Kottayam. 575 medical students and 236 nursing students who joined the course from 2010 -2013 were included in the study. Data was collected using structured questionnaire which collected information regarding the basic demographic factors, knowledge regarding the BLS resuscitation algorithm, their opinion regarding the causes of lack of knowledge & starting of a structured curse of BLS in their curriculum. Results: Median knowledge score was 7 with an inter-quartile range of 4. Average knowledge score was significantly higher among nursing students (8.5±2.8 Vs 6.6±2.5; p value-0.001). Highest knowledge level was seen among those who had seen the BLS previously (15.2% Vs 4.5%; p value- 0.001) or attended the BLS workshop previously (8.1% Vs7.3%; p value-0.001). Final year medical and first year nursing students were having higher knowledge as compared to other students. Conclusions: Knowledge regarding the BLS was less among the students of Government Medical College, Kottayam, Kerala, India nursing students were having higher knowledge than Medical students.


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